Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

What If Every McDonald’s Had Really Good Bike Parking?

What if McDonald's was bike friendly? Photo: WalkBikeJersey
Photo: WalkBikeJersey
false

Have you ever been to a McDonald's and noticed bikes locked to trees, fences, or signposts? Andrew Besold at WalkBikeJersey has, and he thinks a campaign to get fast food restaurants to adopt standards for good bike parking could have a very far-reaching impact:

If you're "bike aware" (and likely you are because you're reading this blog) and have ever visited a fast food restaurant you've undoubtedly seen bikes haphazardly parked to anything secure all around the restaurant site. A vast majority of these bikes are undoubtedly owned by members of restaurant staff who depend on their bikes to get to their jobs in the restaurant.

Knowing that a number of their employees rely on a bike to get to work everyday, one would think that these fast food restaurants would provided some official organized bicycle parking that preferably meets the basic APBP bike parking standards. Unfortunately this is almost always not the case and the sight of bikes parked to whatever the owner can find is common sight not only in New Jersey but at most fast food and chain sit-down restaurants all across the country.

So this is why we ask, "What would it say to America if McDonalds became 'Bike Friendly'?" We are not picking on McDonalds. Far from it! We focus on McDonalds because they are clearly the industry leader and we respect them for that. If McDonalds makes the move to standardize bike parking for their employees and guests, WalkBikeJersey believes that it would send a message across the entire restaurant industry. Their engineering consultants that do their local site plans would also be educated about proper bike parking design and hopefully the message would get out to the towns that do the site plan review and then possibly even to McDonalds' competition. There is clearly the potential for a positive feedback loop here.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Human Transit shares some reasons why driverless vehicle tech will be a bigger deal for buses than for private vehicles. Spacing Toronto looks back at when the city first introduced crosswalks -- it wasn't exactly a victory for pedestrians. And Systemic Failure highlights a criminal misuse of the term "transit-oriented development" in Milford, Connecticut.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Metro 2026 World Cup Transit Plans Emerging

From June 13 to July 7, 2026, Los Angeles will host eight World Cup soccer matches, all at the SoFi Stadium in the city of Inglewood

May 9, 2025

Metro Names Bill Scott as Chief of Police

Chief Scott and Metro leadership emphasized that keeping Metro transit safe would require a multi-faceted approach that included the deployment of officers as well as collaboration with the community, ambassadors, and service providers. "Sometimes enforcement is the answer," Scott said. "Sometimes it's not."

May 7, 2025

Lyft’s Anti-Worker Anti-Transit Record Raises Red Flags For Metro Bike Share

Edwin Aviles and Kalayaan Mendoza urge Metro not to reward bad actors working to undermine workers’ rights and mass transit

See all posts